Mobility & bring your own device

For many people, “going to work” used to mean sitting behind a desk with a desktop computer and a telephone handset. The advent of technology means employees have been freed from their desks to enable work to be a mindset rather than a location. This means that employees can still be an effective asset at any location such as the home, the car, a customer site, hotel room, a temporary portable cabin or another country.

Wherever your staff work, it is crucial for them to have easy access to corporate services - voice, email, unified communications, directories, CRMs and applications – that they need to do their job.

Technology allows team members to be agile and work anywhere within your own business premises, using digital cordless or WiFi handsets, laptops, corporate mobile or BYOD devices on a secure, integrated wireless network. By utilising secure devices, we can also extend this reach worldwide, which can have the benefit of reducing mobile costs while abroad as an example.

Single number reach
Anyone within the corporate environment or working away from the office, can have a single number and use simple, intuitive technology to direct their phone calls and messaging to their smartphone, standard GSM or laptop or tablet. These devices can also provide a presence status of colleagues so time is not wasted calling unanswered phones or going to voicemail.

BYOD
You may have already joined the bring your own device (BYOD) revolution by using employee-owned devices, rather than using corporate fleet handsets that are often left in the desk drawer. There is also hard evidence to suggest that employee-owned devices increase productivity and cost savings, while still allowing organisations to retain control of company-owned information.

A recent survey revealed 95% of businesses have either deployed a BYOD strategy or are considering it, freeing up IT staff from the burden of having to continuously keep up with new technology and the associated costs involved. The enhanced flexibility, ease-of-use and portability of tablets and smartphones means you gain more productive workflow from your employees working in the field and in the office.

CYOD
Choose your own device (CYOD) can act as an effective middle ground allowing a business to have a control over the device that their employee uses while still retaining an element of choice for the employee.

This could be a simple as providing an approved list of devices that the IT department would be happy to support applications on, suiting those with a preference for one type of device over another. When an employee has a device they are familiar with, it reduces the take-up and training time while the company still retains full control of that device, should an employee misplace the handset or leave the company.

To find out more about the mobility options that may enhance your business, please do not hesitate to contact us.